GAUVIN: Klimm sees resurrection in a new job that will offer him more satisfaction

Written by Paul Gauvin

January 27, 2012

Gen. Douglas MacArthur never was a town manager, but he had their ultimate fate right, along with that of generals, when he noted that old soldiers “…just fade away.”

Former TM John Klimm is no exception, except, maybe, that he is on the wane with a big chunk of money coming straight out of your pocket, a buyout package that nobody has really pinpointed down to the penny, but which has drawn guesses from $230,000 to $400,000.

What we can pinpoint from town records so far is that he received $45,747 Dec. 15th for unused vacation time (?), and a weekly check for $2,904 for the past six weeks plus having the town contribute $248 each for the six pay periods for health insurance. Yet Klimm waited until last week to let the citizenry know – despite all his newsletters, TV and radio programs purported to keep us informed - that he doesn’t want the job? Nice guy.

No matter. He wins. He can laugh his way to the bank as did Liberace while the rank and file fret over jobs, stagnant income, ever-higher taxes and fees and all the quotidian concerns that come with insufficient cash.

Last week, Klimm confided to his tip-toe reporters from the weekly Barnstable Enterprise – a gesture, to what was seen as a mutually beneficial relationship - that he was no longer interested in serving the municipality that rocked his cradle, that he so often professed with utmost piety to love. The announcement most probably disappointed his die-hard apologists like frequent commentator Ron Beatty to experience Klimm putting himself before the town.

Is anybody surprised by Klimm’s final word?

Give Klimm credit. He sure knew how to pitch a curve. A lot of people in town swung wildly at the notion that a few town councilors created one of the worst years in town government. This column, old enough to be cautiously cynical, wasn’t among the swingers.

On July 1, 2011, the week after the council bounced Klimm for no specified reason, and none forthcoming because of a “silence” clause in the buyout package, this column asked the question: “What’s going on here on our time and on our dime? Who orchestrated Klimm’s demise, Klimm himself or his detractors on the council?”

To this column’s knowledge in the absence of information from the councilors or the Klimm cabal, it was the first question that broached the possibility that Klimm and his cohorts on the Town Council had connived a plan for his departure with a saccharine buyout. Had Klimm simply resigned for better opportunities, there would be no buyout package.

Therefore, probing into the political soil for telltale tubers of doubt was fair game just as it was to a sanctimonious Newt Gingrich last week before the S.C. primary about his open-marriage proposal to one of his more conservative wives without him attacking and chastising the media for asking the question “at this time.”

To prove a point of utter hypocrisy, later in the same debate Gingrich challenged Mitt Romney to divulge his tax receipts before the South Carolina primary in case there was something in the revelation that could negatively affect the outcome of a race with President Obama. Gingrich failed to note his “family values” shenanigans also pose the same danger in a contest with family-oriented, never-divorced Obama.

The column continued: “From this corner, the council is a long way off from proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Klimm is guilty of anything that warrants his abrupt dismissal. Having said that, maybe Klimm wants out after all and worked the angles to leave with a juicy sendoff right out of taxpayers’ pockets, just like the deal that went down for a former malfunctioning police chief now living high off the hog on this town’s money in a southern clime.”

There followed indignation from Klimm supporters to the point of forming a loose committee to defeat the councilors who voted Klimm out, presumably so a new council could re-hire him. And that’s exactly what happened in the town election. But now Klimm doesn’t want the job, he says. Surprise! Surprise!

There were many signals Klimm wanted out. The actions of his political bedfellow, council President Fred Chirigotis signing the buyout before Klimm did; Klimm’s own failure to fight for his job then and thereby refusing to accept the buyout and wait for a full-council vote to back him; or to speak openly on the issue; the hiring of a political buddy as assistant town manager to take over in Klimm’s absence and like Klimm better feed the pensions; the failure to launch a search for a new TM sooner.

The most revealing action – or inaction – was when the council was offered the opportunity by then councilor James Crocker to retake the buyout vote with the full council on board, a vote that surely would have gone in Klimm’s favor but it was rejected on some questionable rule.

And in the end, Klimm has put a plug in for himself by telling the press he’s at his peak performance age and wants to do something to maximize his productivity and job performance. Why not for the town he loved so? He said his buyout year with a split council is a part of his life he won’t reminisce fondly about.

From this corner, there are no fond memories either about the ugly, disruptive, inconsiderate way this all went down.